Life, yoga and other adventures

Tuesday, 24 November 2015

What's in a name?

The second question that potential new students ask me is
usually, ‘What sort of yoga do you teach?’ I generally answer that I am BWY
trained in the hatha tradition, but that I have absorbed elements from various
teachers and experiences over the years. (The first question is, ‘How much is
it?’ Rarely does anyone ask me where – or even if – I qualified.)

There seem to be so many different styles of yoga around. Let’s start with hatha,
ashtanga, Iyengar, kundalini, Dru: the list goes on and is growing. Add in
Scaravelli, Bikram, viniyoga and yin, and those that are purely descriptive, such
as dynamic, power, restorative, for pregnancy, and trendy ones like barre,
aerial and acro – not to mention hybrids like Yogalates and Body Balance. I’m confused, never mind my students!

So, what sort of yoga do I teach? It depends. I always have
a lesson plan, but adapt it according to who turns up and how we’re all
feeling. Sometimes we work really slowly, sometimes more dynamically. Sometimes
we have a very precise class, but sometimes we’re more mellow and we just go
with the flow, literally and metaphorically. Sometimes, the age of my students
on the night means it’s an over-50s session. Other times the boiler is playing
up and we inadvertently have a session of hot yoga.

I don’t want or need a specific label on my classes. I teach ‘Julia’s yoga’, whatever that is.